REGION'S RUGGED TERRAIN DRAWS POT FARMS

The value of plants confiscated in broad areas across the region has
soared to $130 million, nearly three times last year's haul.

The Santa Monica Mountains and other rugged terrain across the region
have become fertile ground for illegal marijuana growers, with
authorities reporting a major uptick in the discovery and eradication
of pot-growing farms.

In the last year, park rangers and Los Angeles and Ventura County
sheriff's deputies have confiscated about 42,000 marijuana plants --
worth $130 million -- in areas under the jurisdiction of the Santa
Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or the Mountains Recreation
and Conservation Authority, said Walt Young, chief operations officer
for the authority.

The haul is a nearly threefold increase over last year, which marked
the first year of an aggressive and sustained effort by park rangers,
the U.S. Forest Service and the Sheriff's Departments to eradicate
the marijuana plantations, Young said.

"Our whole goal is to make this [pot farming] economically unviable," he said.

Officials said the farms damage the environment and present a
public-safety threat because of fires and possible harm to park
visitors who unwittingly stumble on them. The installations can ruin
soil and vegetation and disturb wildlife in remote areas that are
home to animals such as bobcats and mountain lions, Young said.

The cost of cleanup, which can top $10,000 per plantation, takes
money away from worthwhile scientific projects that protect the
fragile ecosystems, officials said.

About 27,000 plants were seized and destroyed on land owned or
managed by the mountains authority and 15,000 were confiscated on
other public land. The street value of $130 million for those plants
compares with $49 million worth of plants confiscated during the 2009
growing season, Young said.

In all, there have been 13 successful interdiction operations this
year in Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, officials
said. Seizures have taken place in Malibu Canyon, Tuna Canyon and
Zuma-Trancas Canyon in the Santa Monicas, in La Tuna Canyon in the
Verdugo Mountains, at Rocky Peak in the Santa Susana Mountains and in
the Whittier hills.

Multiple marijuana plantations have been discovered in Malibu Creek
State Park in the Santa Monicas. It was during one of the rangers'
backcountry patrols in August that they found the skeletal remains of
Mitrice Richardson, the 25-year-old woman who vanished after being
released from the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station on Sept. 17, 2009.

Another notable incident took place in April, when authorities
arrested two men after locating nearly 1,000 pot plants and 3,000
seeds in a remote section of the state park.

Sheriff's deputies and park rangers found the operation near Malibu
Canyon Road and Piuma Road while conducting a routine search for
possible cultivation sites. The men fled but were later tracked down.
One was treated for injuries after falling off a 15-foot-high rock face.